GBase and H3C Join Forces to Deliver a Hardware-Optimized GBASE Distributed Database Appliance

[BP Business Partner] Driven by digital transformation strategies, the value of data assets is increasingly underscored. Building a high-performance, highly available, and highly scalable big data analytics system is critical to efficiently leveraging and extracting value from data. In March 2021, H3C Group (a Unisplendour subsidiary), Chinese database provider General Data Technology (GBase), and Intel collaborated to achieve a score of 8,944,478 QphDS in the authoritative TPC-DS benchmark test by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC), shattering the local TPC-DS benchmark record based on 8 nodes. They ranked first in average single-core computing power and demonstrated optimal loading performance, setting a new world record!

From OLTP to OLAP: Why GBase 8a MPP Distributed Database Rises to the Top

With the advancement of cloud computing and big data technologies, traditional IT systems and applications have been profoundly impacted, and databases, as foundational software, face new challenges and opportunities. A distributed database consists of multiple computer nodes located at different sites that are interconnected via a network, collectively forming a complete, globally integrated, logically centralized, and physically distributed database. In the future, traditional single-node physical server databases will be replaced by distributed databases in more scenarios, and the application prospects for distributed databases will continue to expand.

In recent years, distributed databases have been increasingly adopted for OLTP application scenarios. Meanwhile, for OLAP business applications, they have already matured and demonstrated clear advantages, making them an unstoppable trend. In response to the massive data analytics demands faced by distributed databases, the inherent limitations of Hadoop technology, and the challenges of complex structured queries, MPP databases have emerged as the new choice.

Source: Gartner

Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) databases are optimized for analytical workloads: aggregating and processing large datasets. MPP databases typically store each column as an object, rather than storing each row in a table as an object (as is common in transactional databases). This architecture accelerates complex analytical queries and enables more efficient processing.

GBase 8a MPP, as the only mature, China-developed MPP database product, has accumulated over a decade of rich technical expertise. It supports more than 2,000 large enterprise users, with over 30,000 data nodes deployed in live operations, managing over 300 PB of data. It is not only a leading product in the Chinese OLAP market but also actively collaborates with various vendors to form embedded end-to-end solutions that benefit global users.

H3C's GBASE-Based Distributed Database Appliance: Hardware Power Accelerates Business

Great database software needs robust hardware to excel. As a leader in digital solutions, H3C Group leverages its businesses in intelligent computing, intelligent storage, and intelligent connectivity to continuously upgrade products and solutions, empowering technological innovation with diverse computing power to fully meet the needs of critical workloads such as databases.

The H3C UniServer R4900 G3 server supports NVMe SSDs and PCIe 3.0 slots, delivering exceptional expandability. Its integrated intelligent security protection modules provide all-around defense for critical business operations, significantly boosting data center productivity. Represented by the H3C UniServer R4900 G3, H3C's server products leverage various technical innovations to provide robust infrastructure support that enables the outstanding performance of the GBase 8a database.

The H3C UniServer R4900 G3 server equipped with Intel® Xeon® Gold 6230R processors, Intel® SSD DC P4510 drives, and Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXVDA2 features multiple leading-edge technologies to meet the demands of demanding I/O-intensive workloads. Additionally, Intel® VROC technology and AVX2 instruction sets further unlock the full performance potential of NVMe SSDs and other infrastructure components, optimizing the performance of critical database functions and enhancing overall system performance.

Meeting Six Core Requirements Across Scenarios with the "Three Highs and One Easy" Advantage
 

The hardware-optimized appliance architecture and configuration built by H3C based on GBase's distributed database is designed for OLAP application scenarios, including massive data warehouses, real-time business analysis systems, and deep analysis data marts. It also leverages "industry-standard hardware + redundant architecture design + open system platform" to deliver high performance, high reliability, easy scalability, and broad compatibility. By utilizing high-performance 10Gb/25Gb Ethernet, it flexibly combines high-performance x86 servers to integrate software and hardware into a unified pool of high-performance computing and storage resources.

High Performance: Certified by the TPC organization, the GBase 8a MPP distributed database running on H3C's latest-generation servers once again sets the peak of computing power for data warehousing. It employs columnar storage and a columnar computation engine, along with efficient compression and intelligent indexing, all of which dramatically boost overall database performance.

High Reliability: It features a federated architecture, online scaling (scale-out/in), high-availability mechanisms, and runs on H3C's latest-generation servers as the hardware platform, supporting real-time multi-site full and incremental data synchronization and site-level cluster disaster recovery to ensure business continuity.

High Security: It employs high-security protection mechanisms including user authentication, permission management, and efficient transparent encryption. Each node can sustain a disk failure without business interruption or data loss, ensuring comprehensive security at the dynamic, static, physical, and system levels.

Easy Management: This is reflected in excellent compatibility, an open ecosystem, and adaptability to any hardware or software environment. It supports multiple mainstream access interfaces and various development languages, with extensible UDFs, allowing traditional users and applications to migrate effortlessly.

Built upon the four powerful advantages of “High Performance, High Reliability, High Security, and Easy Management,” this solution addresses six core business drivers: massive data warehousing (volume), real-time business analysis systems (time-to-value), geo-redundant analytics systems (wide-area resources), heterogeneous data integration platforms (diverse data), deep analysis data marts (business value), and elastic big data cloud platforms (resource governance).

With the deepening adoption of 5G, AI, and other innovative technologies, data will continue to explode at an exponential rate. Against this backdrop, GBase database has entered multiple industries and is progressively becoming a critical support platform for users' core business systems. Moving forward, GBase will continue to join hands with H3C, guided by the “Converged Cloud, Intelligent Landscape, Boundless Ecosystem” cooperation strategy, to continuously set new industry records in database performance through deep optimization and technological innovation. Furthermore, the two parties will strengthen hardware-software co-optimization for database applications, helping users overcome challenges in hardware-software integration and performance tuning, laying a solid foundation for digital transformation.